Friday, 28 June 2013

Government plans to reduce work experience H&S requirements - full text

The Government is to simplify the health and safety
requirements for businesses planning to offer work experience to school
pupils as part of its crackdown on "burdensome" rules, it has announced.25 Jun 2013

"Work experience is an important step in preparing young
people for the world of work," said HSE chair Judith Hackitt. "Our
revised guidance makes it clear – and easy – for employers and work
experience organisers to understand what they need to do."

"There is no need for lots of paperwork or an
over-cautious approach. Employers who are already managing the risks in
their business effectively for employees are unlikely to need to do
anything in addition for work experience. Schools and colleges just need to ask a few questions to ascertain that appropriate measures are in place," she said.

Alongside the new guidance, the Association of British
Insurers has confirmed that work experience students will be treated as
existing employees for the purposes of compulsory employers' liability insurance
policies. Employers will also no longer have to carry out disclosure
checks on staff supervising young people aged 16 or 17 on work
experience.

The announcement is the latest in the Government's drive
to cut down on unnecessary and over-burdensome health and safety
regulation. Recent announcements have seen low-risk businesses taken out
of the health and safety inspection regime,
and proposals to remove around 800,000 self-employed people whose work
poses no harm to others from health and safety regulation. From October
this year, the law will also be changed so that businesses will no
longer be liable for workplace accidents where they were not negligent.

The new guidance from the HSE in relation to work
experience placements makes it clear that employers are "best placed to
assess whether or not they need to do anything additional for a new
young person joining them". Under health and safety law, work experience
students become employees and should be treated no differently to other
young people working for the employer, it says.

Employers should use their "existing arrangements" for
the assessment and management of risks to young people, according to the
guidance. For a business with five employees or fewer, written risk
assessments are not required. Businesses that do not currently employ
young people or that are taking on a work experience student for the
first time should review their risk assessment before they start, but
they do not need to repeat the assessment if a subsequent student is "of
a broadly similar level of maturity and understanding" and has no
additional needs.

Placements in "low-risk environments, such as offices or
shops" should not require any additional preparatory work by the
employer. Employers should "make arrangements to manage the risks" where
the environment is less familiar to the student, according to the
guidance. These arrangements could include induction, supervision, site
familiarisation, protective equipment and control measures for specific
high-risk factors, depending on the nature of the workplace, according
to the guidance.

Schools, colleges and those organising placements are
advised in the guidance to "simply ask sensible questions, in proportion
to the level of risk", to satisfy themselves that the appropriate
arrangements are in place. They should not be "second-guessing
employers' risk assessments or requiring additional paperwork",
according to the guidance.